Notification Template

Four fields. Ninety seconds to complete. The front door of the work management cycle.

Companion to: Fix the System, Chapter 5. Who uses it: plant operators. Not maintenance. The person closest to the equipment is the one who writes. Print format: pocket-sized (folded from a half-letter sheet) or adapt to a tablet form with the same four fields. If you use a tablet, the form must NOT require a login that takes longer than the rest of the notification.

The four fields

That is it. Four fields. Anyone adding a fifth field without triage-stage reason is adding friction that will kill the identification stage within a month.

FIELD 1 — ASSET ID

What piece of equipment are you reporting on?

Use the plant's asset ID / equipment number if you know it. If you don't know the ID, describe the equipment well enough that someone reading this at a desk can find it. Examples:

• "Pump-43, discharge side"
• "Line 3 case packer, infeed conveyor, third bearing from west end"
• "Boiler feed pump #2"

Do not leave this blank. If the asset has no tag, describe the nearest tagged asset plus the location relative to it.

Asset ID or description:

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

FIELD 2 — WHAT YOU OBSERVED

What did you see, hear, smell, or feel that is worth reporting?

Be specific. "Pump broken" is not a notification. "Pressure fluctuating 40-60 psi during morning startup, bearing whine from coupling end" is a notification.

Good observations include:

• A sound that is new or different
• A vibration you can feel in a handrail or platform
• A leak — where, what fluid, how fast
• A reading outside normal range (and the reading)
• A smell (electrical, oil, solvent, burning)
• A visible symptom (cracked, worn, discolored, loose, misaligned)

What you observed:

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

FIELD 3 — WHEN

When did you observe it?

Date and time, or shift. If this is an ongoing condition you've noticed over multiple shifts, say so.

When observed:

_____________________________________________________________________

FIELD 4 — SEVERITY (BEST GUESS)

Your honest first guess — this will be reviewed during triage.

Circle one:

• IMMEDIATE — The equipment is failing now or close to failing. Production at risk within hours.
• WATCH — The condition is real but not yet failing. Worth planning a response in the next week or two.
• COSMETIC — The observation is real but has no functional impact. Worth recording but not urgent.

Don't overthink this field. Your best guess is the point. Triage will refine it within 24 hours.

(OPTIONAL) SUBMITTED BY

Your name, shift, or area ID. Used so triage can close the loop with you.

_____________________________________________________________________

The promise on the back

When an operator writes this notification, the maintenance organization commits to:

• Review your notification within 24 hours.
• Close the loop. If it becomes a work order, you'll know. If it gets rejected, you'll know why in writing.
• Never disappear it silently. A notification that goes into a queue and never comes back is a broken promise.

If these three commitments ever get broken at your plant, the identification stage is not installed. Tell your maintenance lead. Refer them to Chapter 5 of Fix the System.

For tablet / digital adaptation

If your plant uses a tablet or mobile CMMS interface, replicate these four fields exactly. Add nothing. The CMMS may require additional fields for compliance or planning — add those during triage, not capture.

Login: should take less than 15 seconds. If your CMMS requires more, consider a bypass — a dedicated "quick-notify" terminal in each process area with a single shared login that auto-logs each notification with a location tag.

From Fix the System by Ivan Getov. Companion to Chapter 5: Identify. getov.xyz/toolkit/fix-the-system/ch05/notification-template. Free. No email required.